Termites depend on each other for survival. There are reproductive, soldier and worker termites that all have a special task to preserve the lifespan of their colony. The soldier termites protect the colony, the worker termites help bring food to the colony and the reproductive termites lay eggs and create more termites. This is the cycle that termites keep using to survive as long as they can. If anything were to interfere with that cycle, such as human intervention, then the termites won’t be able to survive.

In order to protect themselves from harm, termites build their colonies in either drywood or underneath the ground. That way they shield themselves from predators and increase the chances of their survival. However, they can’t just hide safely in their discrete colony forever. Worker termites have to venture out into the world and find nourishment for the other termites. Their kind of nourishment comes from cellulose, which is material found in grass, shrubs, plant fibers and wood. So when termites start swarming and infesting a home, they are looking for anything to eat that contains cellulose in it. This could be cardboard, books, paper, boxes, photos or even the home’s structure. The consumption of this material is how termites survive. The more cellulose they are exposed to, they stronger they will be able to make their colony.

Termites also like to eat wood that has fungi on it because fungi produce cellulase enzymes. That is why areas that have a lot of moisture in it often attract termites. But even if you were to keep your home dry and surround it with a chemical barrier of termiticide, termites would still be able to survive without getting into your home. They’ve survived for millions of years by eating the wood from decaying trees or simply from eating the grass outside. Even if you are able to destroy one termite colony, there are bound to be many more colonies somewhere nearby. Like virtually all insects, termites will survive long after human beings are gone from this earth because that’s what they’ve always done. The reason they are able to do this is because they don’t strive away from their cycle. The queen termite lays eggs which hatch larva termites. These larva termites grow into soldiers, workers or reproductives. Then each of them does their job to preserve the life of their colony. It is a survival system in which termites are born with and will never go away.